Reflections

As I watch posts about how people are having difficulty doing follow-up on visitor traffic, two areas of concern are tied to this task.  First, hiring the right people for the right job includes people who understand and are not afraid to complete visitor/guest follow-up.  When we interview, we often forget to ask questions...especially of new team members to the industry...what is expected and how they would handle.  We ask them what are their strengths and weaknesses as well as other questions, but seldom ask them questions and obtain facts that set the stage for the task ahead.  "One of the tasks of someone responsible for leasing is completing follow-up after a visit.  This follow-up can include making phone calls, sending emails, sending a thank you card, and even twittering them if we can obtain this information.  Are you prepared to do this and if so, tell me how and and what you would do to make this second communication memorable?" 
With an existing leasing person or assistant manager, we expect them to already know what is to be done.  Problem is we don't know how well they have been trained or how well the can actually do what is expected.  Test them, and in a matter of speaking inspect through role playing what you expect.  

Second part of this is dealing with the leadership characteristics.  When I saw the posting saying a manager was having a difficult time getting team members to do this, my next concern is related to leadership.  What are we doing before to train and be preventative related to follow-up, rather than re-active.  Leadership is about getting others to follow, and sometimes this deals with what some consider to be tasks they may not like.  Maybe it is now what we are saying, but how we are saying it.  This is your responsibility....period end.